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Sunday, May 13, 2007

SGOTW #53: Anniversary Edition

First, a shout out to all of the mothers out there - Happy Mother's Day. We are headed to brunch today.

This week we are celebrating the 1 year anniversary of SGOTW over on the CLBB. For this game, Cookieee had us go back through the old games and choose a recipe that was submitted by another player. I was determined to go through every old game and I did, but it took quite a long time! There were many tasty looking recipes, but I ended up choosing a pasta dish that was looked easy, tasty and a little different than other pasta dishes I've tried in the past.

The recipe I chose not only sounded delicious, but it also satisfied several other attractive criteria - I had the necessary ingredients on hand, it helped me use up some ingredients that were in danger of going past their prime - some goat cheese and a bag of spinach - and it also was a recipe from a chef that I like, but don't normally cook from - Giada de Laurentiis.

Anyway, I chose the Penne with Spinach Sauce that was originally posted by Tkay on Game #43. This was very easy to throw together and we all liked it a lot. Especially my youngest - he ate at least two helpings and raved over it!

I didn't mess with the recipe too much, but unfortunately I was out of multi-grain pasta, so I had to used plain old white pasta. I also inadvertently used 2 ounces of cream cheese instead of one and for a bit more flavor punch, I used a bit more Parmesan than called for. Also, in keeping with advice from reviews on this thread, I reduced the amount of garlic - I don't tolerate raw garlic very well - it does a number on my system.

I didn't measure the salt and pepper - I just added those to taste, so I can't comment on whether or not her measurements are well-balanced or not. I use Kosher salt and a little goes a long way, so I can't really go by recipes or things will end up way too salty.

Easy and delicious. A great way to get spinach into spinach-wary eaters as the spinach in no way dominates this dish. I am already imagining quite a few variations on this dish that I can't wait to try.

2 comments:

We loved this dish, we made it awhile back too. I didn't like the idea of using a bunch of raw garlic either - so instead, I added a few cloves to the boiling pasta water which allowed the harsh flavor to mellow out quite a bit.